This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. As word ricochetted around Washington last week that Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice was pulling his name amid untenable scrutiny of a dating life alleged to include minors, drugs, and cash, nowhere were the sighs of relief louder than from the DOJ staffers themselves. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Disaster dodged,” one career prosecutor texted me in the hours that followed Gaetz’s professed self-decided exit.